Microsoft beats the pirates in China

From the back pages of the Washington Post: this story about the sentencing of a gang selling $2 billion of counterfeit Microsoft software in Guangdong.

This 2007 Fortune article details Microsoft’s comeback in China earlier this decade, through, among other things, the establishment of a research center, support for development initiatives, and consultation with Chinese officials to guide investment in local companies. In turn, the Chinese government began to back and enforce anti-piracy measures. This is a decent turn of events for Microsoft: I can attest to the fact that just a decade ago, you could purchase pirated copies of Windows or Office for a few bucks in Hong Kong.